Chapter Guido to Gulliver of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Guido to Gulliver

Guido “the Savage,” son of Amon and Constantia. He was the younger brother of Rinal do. Being wrecked on the coast of the Amazons, he was compelled to fight their ten male companions, and, having slain them all, to marry ten of the Amazons. From this thraldom Guido made his escape, and joined the army of Charlemagne.—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Guido [Franceschini], a reduced nobleman, who tried to repair his fortune by marrying Pompilia, the putative child of Pietro and Violante. When the marriage was consummated, and the money secure, Guido ill-treated the putative parents; and Violante, in revenge, declared that Pompilia was not their child at all, but the offspring of a Roman wanton. Having made this declaration, she next applied to the law- courts for the recovery of the money. When Guido heard this tale, he was furious, and so ill-treated his child-wife that she ran away, under the protection of a young canon. Guido pursued the fugitives, overtook them, and had them arrested; whereupon the canon was suspended for three years, and Pompilia sent to a convent. Here her health gave way, and as the birth of a child was expected, she was permitted to leave the convent and live with her putative parents. Guido, having gained admission, murdered all three, and was himself executed for the crime.—R. Browning: The Ring and the Book.

Guildenstern, one of Hamlet’s companions, employed by the king and queen to divert him, if possible, from his strange and wayward ways.—Shakespeare: Hamlet (1596).

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are favourite samples of the thorough-paced time-serving court knave … ticketed and to be hired for any hard or dirty work.— Crowden Clarke.

Guillotière , the scum of Lyons. La Guillotière is the low quarter, where the bouches inutiles find refuge.

Guillotine. So named from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a French physician, who proposed its adoption, to prevent unnecessary pain. Dr. Guillotin did not invent the guillotine, but he improved the Italian machine (1791). In 1792 Antoine Louis introduced further improvements, and hence the instrument is sometimes called Louisette or Louison. The original Italian machine was called mannaja; it was a clumsy affair, first employed to decapitate Beatrice Cenci in Rome, A.D. 1600.

It was the popular theme for jests. It was [called La mère Guillotine] the “sharp female,” the “best cure for headache.” It “infailibly prevented the hair from turning grey.” It “imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion.” It was the “national razor” which shaved close. Those “who kissed the guillotine, looked through the little window and sneezed into the sack.” It was the sign of “the regeneration of the human race.” It “superseded the cross.” Models were worn [as ornaments].—Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities, iii. 4 (1859).

Guinart (Roque), whose true name was Pedro Rocha Guinarda, chief of a band of robbers who levied black-mail in the mountainous districts of Catalonia. He is introduced by Cervantes in his tale of Don Quixote.

Guinea (Adventures of a), a novel by Charles Johnstone (1761). A guinea, as it passes into different hands, is the historian of the follies and vices of its master for the time being; and thus a series of scenes and personages are made to pass before the reader, somewhat in the same manner as in The Devil upon Two Sticks and in The Chinese Tales.

Guinea-hen, a fille de joie, a word of contempt and indignity for a woman.

Ere I would … drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen. I would change my humanity with a baboon.—Shakespeare: Othello, act i. sc. 3 (1611).

Guinea-pig (A), a gentleman of sufficient name to form a bait, who allows himself to be put on a directors’ list for the guinea and lunch which the board provides.—City Slang.